Pearson, Wilbur T. and Family
Wilbur T. Pearson (b.1890)
Dublin, NH
Wilbur T. Pearson spent much of his life commuting between Dublin, NH, and Washington, DC for his work as a chauffeur and farmer to a private family. His employer Arthur J. Parsons was chief of the division of prints of the Congressional Library. Parsons and his family summered in the Monadnock Region along Dublin Lake from the 1890s to the 1930s. Their domestic servants and farm hands traveled with them.
Wilbur Pearson was born in December 1890, son of Richard and Mary Pearson of Virginia. He grew up in Providence, VA, and at the age of 21, married Maggie G. Williams of Washington, DC in November 1911. Their daughter Marguerite G. Pearson was born in 1919.
As early as the 1910s, Wilbur Pearson began working as a farmer and chauffeur to Arthur J. and Martha Parsons of Washington, DC. The Parsons had purchased a large tract of land with houses and a farm in Dublin, NH, around 1890; Pearson was hired to assist with the care of the family and the farm. World War I draft registration cards from 1918 list Mrs. Martha Parsons of Washington, DC, as an employer for two men of color working in Dublin- Wilbur Pearson and Emanuel Lopez.
By 1930, Pearson purchased his own house at 1324 22nd Street in DC worth $8,000. And in 1935, he entered into a 3-year lease for Parsons property in Dublin, NH, known as "Day Spring Farm" or "Hopkins Farm". The terms of the lease required Pearson to pay Jeffrey Parsons, son of the original owners, $900.00 in installments and furnish Parson with: 3 quarts of milk per day during June, July, August and September; 200 pounds of ice per week in June, July, August and September; and sufficient cordwood for domestic use. Pearson was also required to install plumbing systems in the houses known as Tyn 'y' Maes, Day Spring and MapleCote. He was to maintain and close those houses, to use certain farming practices, and to provide personal services to Jeffrey Parsons at 35 cents per hour.
Following his three year lease, Pearson purchased an extensive farm from Howard Land, property which had been owned by Jeffery Parsons. It is unclear as to whether or not Pearson was purchasing the same land he had leased. The description recorded in the deed shows the Old Road from east Jaffrey to Day Spring Farm on the west and Gold Mine Road on the north. (Probably east of route 137).
Wilbur Pearson’s daughter Marguerite grew up and attended three years of college, eventually becoming a stenographer for a real estate office. On 27 Jan 1945 she married widower William J. Pippen but the marriage only lasted a few years. They were divorced by 1950 and she moved back in with her parents.
SOURCE MATERIALS
Cheshire County, NH, Registry of Deeds- Vol. 465: 954; Vol. 477: 51.
Evening Star (Washington, DC.). “Arthur J. Parsons Dies at His Summer Home.” November 6, 1915, p.2.
U.S. Federal Census Records, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940, 1950- Ancestry.com
Washington DC Marriage Records, 1935- Ancestry.com
World War I Draft Registration Card, 1918- Ancestry.com
GENEALOGICAL SUMMARY
WILBUR T. PEARSON was born in Virginia in December 1890, son of Richard and Mary Pearson. He married in Washington, DC, in November 1911 to MAGGIE G. WILLIAMS. They had: Marguerite G. Pearson (b.1919).
MARGUERITE G. PEARSON was born in Washington, DC, in 1919 She married on January 27, 1945 to WILLIAM J. PIPPEN.